Never Let Me Go

For Never Let Me Go Clark Gable has dusted off his American correspondent role from Comrade X. In that very funny comedy, Gable was playing an American newspaperman covering the Soviet Union before World War II. He's back at his correspondent's desk in this film. However here he's deadly in earnest as a man driven by love to get his Russian bride out of the police state.

Sadly the film was dated from its release with the prominent use of newsreel footage involving Joseph Stalin. The film was released on May 1, 1953 and Stalin had died in March of 1953. The state was the same, but the personalized red bogeyman that Stalin had become was no longer there. I'm sure that must have lessened the impact for those who saw Never Let Me Go in the theater.

During the war Gable meets ballerina Gene Tierney and in the spirit of the wartime alliance they fall in love and get married. But when the shooting war against Hitler stops and the Cold War starts, no one tells them NYET concerning romance. The increasingly cynical tone of Gable's stories make him an undesirable in the Soviet Union, he gets deported and Tierney is left behind. The Soviets don't recognize marriage and romance with the enemy.

Clark's not going to take that lying down. With Richard Haydn, another man who married a Russian girl left behind, they hire Bernard Miles who has a seaworthy craft and plan a rescue. It's quite a plan and a last minute hitch should have told any sensible person to try another day. Of course that's not what happens, but it does render the last minute rescue somewhat silly.

Tierney and Gable make a sincere of pair of romantic lovers. Even without the personalization of Stalin, the film is an accurate reflection of the times. Russians are a mighty suspicious lot of people, before, during, and after the Soviet Union. Kenneth More has a very nice role as a television broadcaster presumably for the BBC who helps the leads with some coded messages in his broadcasts.

Gable was getting a bit old for these kind of romantic daring do roles by 1953 though. It's not one of the top films of his career or in that last decade of that fabled Gable career.

Some of the scenes for this movie were filmed at Lusty Glaze beach in Newquay Cornwall. I visited there some years ago and there was a tea cafe with some stills from the film, Having seen the film,one could take in the atmosphere of the night filming which took place there. I also met local people who saw the filming and of course the stars. To reach Lusty Glaze, you have to decend over 100 steps to the beach. One wonders how all the cameras and lighting equipment actually got down there. There is only one access to the beach and one can imagine the actors having to climb and decend those steps to complete the take. Never Let Me Go was in my opinion one of Clark Gables most memorable films and his co star Gene Tierney was magnificent.

An odd film but one that is surprisingly watchable and provides an interesting insight into the early stages of the Cold War. The film conveys the menace of the era and the grim, cold and hate filled place that the Soviet Union always was. Indeed from what we now know, one may even regard the film as being soft on the Communists, as the two Russian women in the film who take western husbands would quite likely have been taken off to labour camps (and 90% likely to have been killed therefore) by Stalin's secret police rather than just denied the chance to leave the country.

Some of the acting leaves a little to be desired and Clark Gable particularly seems like he is being forced into a part and a budget that was several sizes too small for him, but nevertheless a worthy and reasonably intelligent effort.

The Anglo-American angle in the film is one I always enjoy, it is always good to see the Brits and the Americans getting together!

HUAC schmaltz with an embarrassingly bad performance from Ms. Tierney whose Russian accent is one step above (or below) Boris and Natasha.

I never watch war-like movies. But since Clark Gable starred in it, I knew I had to give it a try. This movie is well rounded because it has romance, drama, and even a little mystery. I'm my own movie critic. I pick apart endings and insist they should have been different! This ending is perfect. Anyone that picks this movie apart should watch boring modern day movies that get their ideas from old movies! And they're never as good!